Welcome to empatheias' test drive meme. This test drive is to help interested players test their characters in the game's environment. We've included a few prompts that incorporate specific elements of the game, though you'll find all of them have a lot of leeway for players to get as creative as necessary. Before diving in, here are a few things we'd like to remind everyone about the game in general:

Date reminders.Reserves open Friday, December 25th and Applications (Canon | OC) open Friday, January 1st.

OC Reminder! Just a quick reminder that original characters are currently allowed. Those interested can also use the test drive. OCs do not need to be reserved.

Emotions are key! Empatheias' premise focuses on how anyone's emotions can affect their environment, be it big or small. While not every emotion will cause a reaction, significant ones definitely will. How much effect a character will have will ultimately be up to you, the player. Also, while we're giving a lot of leeway for the test drive, keep in mind that there will be some limits in the actual game.

Everyone has an amulet. All characters have a unique amulet that is specialized for them. It will contain all of their emotion drops and it serves as the network device. Remember, communication is telepathic. Otherwise, it works basically the same.

Assume the character is already in the game. Because "OMG WHERE AM I IS THIS REAL LIFE" threads aren't going to be very helpful in this test drive! Plus those are going to happen in-game, anyway. So to make things easier, just assume that they've been around at least a week or so. Still learning the ropes, but not a complete "first day" experience.

First or third person allowed. Your threads can be in either first or third, but we'd advise being flexible about it. Remember, these threads can also be used in your application for samples! Reminder: We only require one sample and it can be done in either format. We have also made a change to our sample requirements, so look over the Applications page!

Now with that out of the way, here are some prompts you guys can work from!

PROMPTS

• Prompt A: How about giving the emotions a try?

• Prompt B: Refer to the Task Board and choose a task your character may be interested in taking up. For this prompt, you could have your character ask for help, already be in the middle of the job, or react to it in some way. Perhaps they were an unfortunate victim or want to create a job countering an existing one. You could even have a prompt making a job request. Creating jobs for the purpose of the test drive is absolutely doable.

• Prompt C: How about giving the amulets a go? Start a telepathic conversation and see how it works. Remember, the amulets are sending out the owner's thoughts so might want to be careful about how the stream of consciousness goes...

• Prompt D: A new card game is sweeping through the streets of Verens: "Magica Ex Arehtei." Players take on the role of an Otherworlder and form battle decks out of minions, monsters, dunamis, and even the Arehtei themselves. It’s insanely complicated in its details, but this hasn’t stopped a seller from handing you a starter deck and all but pushing you into a chair to face an opponent… who may have just been conscripted themselves.

• Prompt E: After a long period of quiet (something about ‘emotional and physical harm to Empatheias’ and ‘manufacturing plush weapons without a Class E(X) license’), toy manufacturers have flooded merchant stalls and storefronts with a new offering, the hyper-cute stuffed Thras. No negative emotions, they promise! Plush Thras is so full of bravery, he’ll inspire anyone who holds him to new heights of courage and valor!

Naturally, magiscience has gone too far, and picking up the doll instills you with vigor, energy, and fearlessness past the point of recklessness.

• Prompt F: Thundersnow! A phenomenon in which a snowstorm is accompanied by lightning and thunder, and not a terribly uncommon one in Empatheias. But today’s thundersnow is more like an apocablizzard -- lighting lashes through the sky and lances down to catch buildings and trees with its fury, all hidden behind whirling sheets of billowing snowflakes that have blanketed the city in a foot of snow with no sign of stopping.

The outside is cold, windy, miserable, and potentially dangerous. Are you trapped in a building you didn’t expect to be in? Or perhaps you’ve joined up with an emergency emotion squad, trying to impose calm or cheer on the raging storm?

• Prompt G: Make your own! It could include lumps of coal or moose.

For your threads, put the Character Name and the Canon in the subject line to help readily identify them. You're also welcome to use more than one prompt for respondents to choose from. If you have any questions or want to brush up on the game information, refer to the Game Information entry. Otherwise, tag around and have fun!

Agent North Dakota | Red vs Blue

[It's an odd thought to have, but from North's perspective, he's pretty sure he's supposed to be dead.]

[Prompt D - As Expected!]

[North appreciates a good card game. It was one of the few things to do outside of train on the Mother of Invention, and one of the few things he and his sister could do without having it devolve into too intense an argument.

But when the shopkeeper had explained it to him, North had honestly been expecting something like poker, or blackjack. Not...whatever this was. He stared at the cards in utter confusion, not even sure where to start.]

Uh...I think I draw first...right? Or do you start?

[Prompt F - The Human Snowglobe?]

[North can honestly say he's never seen a blizzard like this. Not even when they were training on Sidewinder. But here he has an actual chance to do some good and help people.

He's joined up with an emergency emotion squad, hoping that he can keep himself calm enough to have an effect on the others and the weather. He knew that that demeanor could help on the battlefield, but this is a whole new situation. He wishes he had Theta, as the dome shield would provide perfect cover, at least for keeping the snow off. But they weren't supposed to use equipment in the field without AI, and North doesn't want to push his luck]

no subject

[She went out with the guy who did it too. Nice fellow. Bad run in with the scale of an angry whale.]

Welcome to the afterlife then! It has its problems, but as a whole it's been pretty nice. I'll be your guide, White, as you get yourself acclimated to being dead and what lies in store for you here in our moderately peaceful Verens~.

[White's having fun, okay. As someone who claimed she was a ghost her first week here -- surely she was dead, if she had so much freedom, but no memory of hers correlated with an incident like that -- the least she can do is help a fellow wanderer.]

no subject

[Humanity really can't go a year without it, can they? Even now, lately...]

And if things don't go well with the inhabitants below, we might be in for a round two.[White sighs, and though her tone's mournful and quiet she's not exactly feeling anything about it. It's kind of just a fact that it might end up that way.]A shame. It's been pretty peaceful up here, minus the Arehtei interruptions and certain incidents.

no subject

The inhabitants below live in a city called Shaarnath. Unlike the people up in here in Verens, they've mastered being able to basically internalize their emotions and turn them into a kind of strength that we Otherworlders are only just now learning and getting used to the thought of. It's called dunamis.

[A pause.]

The people here have become used to and probably expect a extent of sincerity in emotions, since they're put on display whether we really want them to or not, and since the people of Shaarnath have been able to keep those under wraps Verens is pretty wary of them. Then there's the anti-Arehtei sentiment with Thras -- the Arehtei of courage and fear, he's the big dragon you might've seen around with a cool top hat -- hiding the city in the first place.

But um, back to dunamis. It's basically magic fueled by your emotions. Master it and even someone as powerless as me can shoot lighting from her hands or pinpoint an explosion wherever I please, and you'd never know it was coming.

[So it boils down to distrust. Piphron is gonna have a field day with this.]

no subject

[It takes North a moment to digest all of that. Emotion magic (at least that's what it sounds like) is definitely a far cry from what he's used to. And not at all what he anticipated from an afterlife. But he can definitely see how that hiding of the city and the emotions could cause some problems. ]

Sounds like I've got a lot to learn about this world. So, what are we supposed to do with this dunamis? Go off and fight?]

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You can use it for that, yeah. It's got as many uses and effects as our emotions themselves do, from what I remember... The natives of Verens sure do seem to think that the Shaarnathites are planning on using it for a fight though. But I figure you can use it for anything simpler too.

[But fighting is probably the biggest use people can think for it, yes.]

D

[Shirabe's played some - esoteric - card games before. Stuff that has cartoons promoting them. More than that, she's good at retaining information. The rules aren't that weird to her.]

We both draw cards. Logic beats Laughter beats Power beats Logic. If we have the same element, the card with the higher attack wins. The winner can choose to go first or second.

[... Okay, no, these rules are insane.]

Or we could just flip a coin. [Or they could do something else with their lives, but Shirabe is too invested at this point. She spent fifteen minutes going through the cards the shopkeeper offered her.]

no subject

[Shirabe draws, too, with a bit of a dramatic flourish. Card game cartoons, okay?]

I got a Power. [She turns the card over so North can see, then draws 4 more cards.]

Since you're going first, you only draw 3 more cards. To balance it out. Once that's done, you can play your cards. You can only play one Character card per turn, but you can play as many Emotion cards as you like. Event cards can only be played when the prerequisites listed on their cards are met, like 3 Power characters being on the field. Characters can't attack the turn they're played, unless they have the Hotheaded trait on their card. The goal is to either fill your own crystal with Emotion or to drain your opponent's Crystal. We each start with 5 Logic emotion, 5 Power emotion, and 5 Laughter emotion. 10 of each means it's filled. If you want to drain it-